Life on the SeaQuest with a Teen Guinus
by EastYorkDisneyFan
Summary: This story is set after the completion of the second SeaQuest, with both the new and the old crew members. Most of it will centre around Lucas and Briger and how their relationship evolves.
1. Chapter 1

EXPLANATION: **1.)** I do not own Sea Quest or any of its characters. **2.)** For the sake of this story the building of the second Sea Quest took about 1 year and six months instead of 2 as it did in the show. **3.)** Ben and Katharine stayed on Sea Quest as while as Dr. Westphalen, however Tony and Dr. Smith also joined the crew. **4.)** Lucas originally lied about his age when he came on board, he was only 14. Also I will use a date of Febuary 29 2004 for his birth. 5.**)** Also Tony was moved out of Lucas's room about two weeks into the tour as he complained he wasn't getting much sleep as Lucas spent most o the night on his computer. This story is going to be a rewrite of my story The Truth, but fleshed out a little more.

Lucas woke up one morning with pain in his abdomen that he had never felt before. He wasn't sure what he should do, should he just tough it out and if it got worse see the doctor or should he just go to her right away. He looked at his clock and saw it said 6:30 am; he really wasn't used to waking up that early so he decided that maybe he should go and see the Doctor.

He walked out of his room that was labeled Chief Computer Systems Analyst/ Mammal Engineering/ Resident Teen Genius. The first one was the official title that the UEO had given to him for helping design the new computer programs on board the new SeaQuest and for basically keeping them all running. The second title was a little joke from his previous quarters on the first SeaQuest which was more like a storage room that they had added a bunk and a desk for him, and the third had been Lt. Ben Krieg's idea, he had originally suggested "Caution Resident Teen Genius" but Lucas wasn't too happy about that.

Lucas made the decision to go see the Doctor; he got up and exited his room. He looked at the door and chuckled at the sign on it. His abs started to hurt him even more now. He headed down the hall towards Med Bay when he ran into the Captain who immediately asked him.

"Lucas why are you up so early and why are you roaming the decks of SeaQuest in nothing but a pair of boxers and a t-shirt"

Lucas thought for a moment should he lie to the Captain and make up some excuse or should he tell him the truth. He decided to tell him the truth.

He said "I woke up with pain in my abdomen and decided to go see the Doctor about it."

The Captain then decided to help the teen get there and also he knew that as the Captain of the ship the UEO had appointed him Lucas's legal guardian in the absence of his father who was off working on a second World Power project.

When they got to the Med Bay, Dr. Westphalen had just arrived and was getting ready just in case she needed to treat any patients today. Most of the time she just took care of minor cuts and bruises and sometimes in the case of Lucas minor electrical burns. She looked up from her office and was shocked to see the Captain and Lucas in Med Bay at this hour; she immediately suspected that there must be something wrong with the teen. She opened the door and told Lucas to get up on one of the examining tables. Normally the teen put up a fuss when she said this, but today he just lay down on it without a word to her. She figured that he must be really sick today or he had injured himself somehow, but since it looked like he had just gotten up as he was only in a pair of boxers and a t shirt not something that he would usually walk around the boat in she figured he must be really sick. She went over to him and stuck a thermometer in his mouth to take his temperature. She noticed that it was about two degrees above normal not to serious but it could be the first sign of infection.

She then asked "Lucas why have you come in to Med Bay this morning."

"I woke up at about 6:30 this morning with pain in my abdomen." Lucas said.

"Where does it hurt the most?"

Lucas lifted up his shirt revealing his somewhat scrawny frame, he then pointed to the area just above his right hip. The Doctor began felling his abdomen there when the teen immediately said that it hurt.

"Lucas have you had pain in this area before?"

"No, not in that area before, do you think it might be my appendix?" asked Lucas.

She then left the room for a minute and came back with a portable ultrasound machine which she used on his abdomen. Well she was doing this Lucas commented that he had had this done to him before, after one of the beatings from his father. He also said that they had needed to rush him to surgery right away and remove his spleen to stop the internal bleeding he had. The Doctor, as had the Captain, of course had known about this and as few of his other injuries from what he had told him. She also knew of some other scars that Lucas had that were not mentioned in his medical file and she wasn't sure why. Also there was a section from the time when he was four to six years old that was sealed off to even her, she had often questioned Lucas about this and he usually just gave her the answer that it was something she didn't need to know. It made her wonder all the more what was Lucas hiding, what had happened to him in those years that someone would want to seal his medical file. After she finished with the test she said to him.

"I'm afraid that your appendix is going to have to come out young man."

"Ah Man that really sucks. I guess that means surgery then right?"

"Yes unfortunately it does and also that means you will have to spend a couple of days here and then another week on LIGHT duty, and no swimming for at least three weeks."

Lucas looked at her and just moaned. He then decided to tell them something about himself that only he and his parents knew about him. He decided to tell them what was in the sealed portion of his medical file.

Then Lucas said to Dr. Westphalen and Captain Bridger.

"There was something I want to tell you about my past and I also want to show you what's in the sealed portions of my medical file. Is it ok if I use the computer in your office doc?"

She was puzzled by this, but told him to go ahead. She and Bridger helped him into her office, where Lucas immediately opened up his medical file and begin hacking into the sealed portions of it, Dr. Westphalen just stared at the information in front of her, and she looked over to the Captain and said.

"Nathan are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

The Captain nodded, he was just shocked as she was. The two of them looked at Lucas with a questioning gaze. Lucas then looked up at them and said.

"When I born, I was both blind and mentally challenged, so when I was four years old my parents took me to a Doctor that my father had found, they told me that this doctor would help me to be normal, whatever that meant? When we got to the doctor's office he talked about doing an operation on me. I later found out all the information you see in the file when I decided to hack into it well I was at Stanford. I found out that he had operated on my brain and placed a sort of computer processor in my brain. He had also replaced portions of my eyes with video cameras to give me somewhat normal sight."

He looked up at the two adults in the room; they just stared back at him shocked that someone would do this to a child.

"When I was six I had to go back to that doctor because I had developed a complication from the first operation. The Doctor had to operate on me again and put a shunt into the back of my head as I had developed something called hydrocephalus."

Captain Bridger immediately grabbed Lucas and held him in a tight embrace like he had done so many times before. He was now remembering the night when Lucas had first told him of his abuse. It was about a month ago when the crew was going to have some time off.

He had walked in to the teen's room to find out what he would be doing well they had two weeks of shore leave and I saw him crying well reading an e-mail from someone. I thought it a little unusual as Lucas was always in control of the emotions that he displayed in public.

"_What's wrong, why are you crying?"_

Lucas looked up to see the captain standing there he brushed the tears from his eyes and said "I just got an e-mail from my Dad's secretary telling me that my Dad was unable to look after me for the two weeks and I have to make other arrangements."

_The captain had been shocked by this. How could someone treat their son like this, it was disgraceful. How Lucas could even call this man his father was beyond comprehension._

"Have_ you made other arrangements yet?"_

_The teen just shook his head no and buried his head in his hands, as he drew himself up into the fettle position on his bed with his back to the auqatube._

"_Would you like to come and spend some time with me on my Island?"_

_Lucas looked up at him and wiped some tears away from his eyes with the sleeve of his turtleneck and said._

"_Do you really mean that or are you just trying to get me off the ship?"_

_I was shocked by this._

"_Lucas, I really want this. If I go back to my Island alone, I will be just that, alone. If I go with you maybe we can get a chance to know each other a little better."_

_Lucas smiled at me and asked._

"Do_ you have an internet connection on your Island?"_

_The Captain just looked at him and smiled and said._

"_Yes but it's not as fast as the ones your used to on SeaQuest."_

_Lucas looked up at him and said "Don't worry I can work with that"_

_The next day we were on a boat heeding towards my Island, a solitary dolphin played in the wake from our bow. Both of us knew that it was Darwin, who had been released from the SeaQuest, he of course had decided to tag along with his favorite playmates Lucas and myself._

_Once we got to the Island, I gave Lucas a quick tour of the house and showed him the guest bedroom which Lucas gusted my son Robert had might have had, I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't quite sure as I didn't talk to him or anyone for that matter about my family._

_Lucas left his stuff in the room and changed into a bathing suit to go and play with Darwin for a little bit. He stopped by the kitchen where he saw me looking through the cupboard and the fridge to see if all the supplies I had ordered were there. Lucas told me that he was going out to play with Darwin for a bit, as he left I told him that I would call him for lunch. When he left through the front door I noticed a lot of scars on his back and wondered where he had gotten those from I decided to ask him about them later or maybe to wait for him to tell me about them himself._

_Later that evening, after we both had gone to sleep, for some reason I woke up and decided to check on Lucas and I saw that he wasn't in his bed. I went down the stairs and saw that Lucas was on the couch watching TV with his computer on his lap talking to his friend Wolfman on the Internet. Lucas then signed off and yawned but he didn't go upstairs to bed as I had expected him to do, he just put his computer down on the coffee table and lay back and continued to watch TV. I came over to him and said_

"_Why are you up so late?"_

"_Can't sleep, I'm tired but I just can't fall asleep. I've always had that problem since I was a little kid. I can't get to sleep the first couple of nights I'm in a new place."_

"_Robert was like that too. Why don't you sit up for a second so I can sit on the couch next to you?"_

_Lucas sat up and I grabbed a pillow and asked Lucas to lay down on it. I then began stroking his hair and just looking into his eyes, in a way that I had never before, I saw love in the teen's eye. I also saw a lost little boy in them, a boy who wanted to tell someone something about himself, but was afraid to do so._

"_Is there something that you want to tell me?"_

_Lucas looked at me with a look of panic in his eyes and said._

"_Not really Captain, Why do you ask?" I then gently I said to him._

"_I saw the scars on your back and was wondering about them."_

_Lucas suddenly tensed up and his breathing quickened, he also sat up and I saw a look of fear in his eyes. I said to Lucas in a calm voice._

"_Just relax kido, I didn't mean anything by that, I'm just curious that's all."_

_Lucas then calmed down a little bit and begin to tell me about how his father had beaten him and that the scars on his back where from when his dad had used his belt on his back. He told me how his father had called him an 'arrogant piece of shit' and told him that he was acting like a smart ass all the time, that he was a show off. He told me how this had started when he was in Junior high school and continued through high school. He told me how he had started Junior High School at the age of five._

_He also told me how he had started high school when he was eight years old. He then told me about how he had begun at Stanford University at the age of eleven. I took this all in and just stared at the teen and wondered why anyone would beat their son because he was smart. Smart was just putting it mildly I knew that he was a genius. I then did something that neither one of us had expected I grabbed Lucas and held him in a tight embrace, the two of us just sat there. Me with Lucas's head on my shoulder stroking his back, Lucas had started crying during this, I just comforted him. I knew from raising my son Robert that sometimes you just needed to be there for your children (which I wasn't enough), and from what Lucas had just told me he didn't think that his parents had ever been there for him._

_Over the next two weeks Lucas and I got to know each other fairly well, Lucas told me about how he had been dumped on the SeaQuest. I wondered how true that story was as I had heard about someone developing a device capable of translating dolphin sounds into human speech and that the Government was interested in it. I myself told him about the family I had once had and a little about the research I had done into translating Dolphin into human speech too. _

_Then one night after Lucas had woken me with a nightmare he had been having, he had actually called out to me with his mind. It felt exactly like the time that Amanda had done it to me, I was puzzled was Lucas like her and her family, was he like me as well. I went to his room and just talked to him and help him calmed down. Lucas then told me that he had a dream about a week before he came on to the SeaQuest. He said that it was about a beautiful woman named Carol._

"_That was my wife's name." Lucas nodded and said._

"_Yeah I know. I later realized who she was when I saw a picture of her in your quarters. Anyway in the dream she told me that I was going to meet someone special that would help me find love, and that I would also help them to find themselves again."_

_I smiled and realized that I had a similar dream about a week before Bill Noyce had come to see me, I told Lucas this and the two of us just somehow knew that we had shared something very special._

Back in the present Doctor Westphalen turned to Lucas and said.

"Young man, I really need to get that appendix out of you before your symptoms get worse." Lucas looked at her and groaned.

Dr. Westphalen just said to him "come on, you know it won't hurt."

Lucas smiled and said "yaeh I know, it's just that I don't really like operating rooms much."

"I can understand that perfectly, after all you've been through. Do you want me to sedate you before I take you in?"

Lucas just nodded, and then she showed him to a little room where she gave him a gown to put on while she got the Captain to sign the necessary paper work, after all, he was Lucas's legal guardian, well Lucas was onboard the SeaQuest.

A few minutes later Doctor Westphalen came into the room that Lucas was in along with Doctor Levin who would be assisting her with his surgery and the Captain who said he would be there to hold Lucas's hand well he was put under the anesthesia, Lucas smiled and thanked him for that. Doctor Westphalen then gently started an Iv in Lucas's arm, he said he barley felt it. She then injected the anesthesia into the tube in it Lucas quietly drifted off to sleep as it was given to him. Her and Doctor Leven then took him into the operating suite inside of the med bay and began to prep the teen for surgery.

They began by going in laparoscopicly threw his belly button, but they found that his appendix had ruptured and decided that it would be best to open him up. Once they were finished they took him back to the regular area of med bay and Dr. Westphalen went to go get the captain in the waiting room. He came over and sat beside his youngest crew member just as a father would beside his own son. He also told the Doctor that he had informed the senior staff about Lucas and that he would let them know when he was able to have some visitors. Doctor Westphalen knew how important Lucas was to the rest of the crew as most of them either looked at him as being a younger brother or a good friend or even treated him like he was their son.

She also noticed that the Captain had brought a teddy bear with him; she figured that it must have been Lucas's. She saw him put it beside Lucas who grabbed it and snuggled up to it well he was sleeping in the same way that any other kid would do.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple of hours later, Lucas woke in the recovery room with Captain Bridger holding his left hand. His right hand was draped around his teddy bear, which she realized that the Captain had gotten for him from his quarters. Dr. Westphalen looked at him and smiled she wondered why Lucas still had a teddy bear, she knew now, was not the time to ask but she figured she already knew the reason, even though he was 15 according to his birth records she knew that there was part of him that was still just a young kid who looked at the world like a child. His life had been bad, really bad and she realized that the teddy bear was probably his only comfort in his troubled life. He looked at Kristine, then at his teddy bear and said.

"My mum gave him to me when I was four, just before my first operation. He was the first things I ever saw when I woke up. I've always slept with him ever since. I know I'm fifteen and some people might consider it odd that I still sleep with him. Hell! Even in college my roommates made fun of me for it."

"I understand perfectly why you sleep with him, and you are not the only one onboard who has something that they sleep with for comfort."

Lucas then said he was tired and fell asleep again. Kristen looked at Nathan.

"Nathan, if you need to go to the bridge, you can leave him with me. He'll be just fine."

Nathan Bridger just looked at her and said "It's alright, I've told the senior staff about the situation down here and I told them that I will be with him for the next little while. Besides they can always call me if anything happens."

After Bridger had said that Lucas rolled on to his left side and murmured thanks Dad to the Captain. Captain Bridger then explained that Lucas sometimes called him that when he was comforting him well he was half asleep, like he was now.

He then told Katharine about the first time he had taken Lucas to his Island and he had come down and seen Lucas on the couch and comforted him for a bit because he couldn't sleep. He also told her how the teen had fallen asleep with his head in his (the captains) lap, well he was sleeping he had heard Lucas murmur to him thanks dad just as had done a few minutes ago, he said he had thought about correcting him but then he heard Carrols voice in his head that said to him no don't he needs you as a father in his life.

Lucas woke up the next morning in med bay wondering where he was. He looked around at his surroundings and realized where he was.

Just as he had woken up Doctor Westphalen walked over to him and said "how are you feeling today young man?"

Lucas groaned and said "better then yesterday and I feel a little hungry can I have something to eat?"

Dr. Westphalen looked at him and said "it's good your feeling better, but I think you should wait a little bit longer before you have something to eat. Now is there anything else I can get you?"

Lucas looked up at her and said "only if the Captains not busy right now?"

Just then Captain Bridger walked in the med bay to check on Lucas. He saw that he was awake and talking to Kristine Westphalen. He walked over to him and said "I not busy right now why, do you ask?"

Lucas looked up and smiled at him and said "I was just wondering where you were. I wanted to thank you for getting Daniel for me."

The Captain smiled at his youngest crew member. Doctor Westphalen was puzzled and asked "who's Daniel?"

Lucas looked up to her and nodded to his Teddy Bear which he still had next to him. He said "I decided to give him my middle name because I always thought it was kind of stupid to name it something to cute"

Doctor Westphalen smiled at him and said "well to bad that is cute."

Lucas just laughed at that comment. "Some of the girls in college thought so too. He's been with me though my worst and best times. Sometimes he was my only comfort, especially when my parents abandoned me."

A little while later when Lucas had woken up a little bit more he had his first visit from one of the senior staff, Lt. Ben Krieg who really looked at Lucas like the little brother he never had. Ben was telling him how that when he got out of there he had a great new movie to show him. Ben would sometimes show Lucas movies that he wouldn`t ordinarily get to see, much to the Captain and Good Doctor`s chagrin, sometimes the movies that he showed the teen weren't really appropriate for either of them but then Ben would point out that he can`t live a shelter life forever. Lucas also pointed out to them that if he really wanted to he could find some of that stuff online, to which Ben replied ``yeah but you really don`t want to watch that stuff. ``

Lucas laughed at that and told Ben to stop making him do that as it made his Abs hurt. Ben apologised to him for that and said he would try and not make him Laugh.

Lucas smiled and him and said ``with you that`s not possible, I`ll just suck it up when it come to the pain, plus that`s what morphine is for. `` He said the last part as he pressed the button on his IV pump to give himself a little bit more.

Doctor Westphalen had set it up for him and locked it with a code and made Lucas swear on his life that he would not play with it to give himself more than the dose that she had set up for him. She also gave him the controller for it and said that he could push it once every few hours to give himself some more if he needed it. She also told him that it would lock up until the time limit had past so he couldn`t give himself multiple extra doses. In addition to the Morphine Lucas was also hooked up to an IV of some saline and some antibiotics to help him fight off the infection. She also had him hooked up to a heart monitor as she had learned from his file that well he was in collage he had been diagnosed by one of his friends and there teacher that he had a heart problem called long QT syndrome, which meant that he had a small electrical problem with his heart, thankfully it was controlled well with the beta blockers that Lucas had been prescribed by a heart specialist and also luck for him it was something that was carried in the SeaQuest pharmacy s that when he needed more he could get them. Doctor Westphalen also always noted how often he refilled it, she never saw any problem with it, there were times she would double check with him when she knew that it was almost time for him to pick up some new ones.

She remembered one of the first times that she had to give Lucas a full physical it was well she was conducting them on everyone on the ship. He happened to be the last one that she got not just because he was among the last of the crew and staff on the ship because of his last name, it was more because he was afraid of doctors. She figured if she knew then what she knew now about him she may have been a little bit gentler with him. However having the captain there did make him more comfortable during the exam. She had asked him what he knew about his heart problem, which the captain seemed a little surprised about as the teen had never mentioned it to him. Lucas went on to tell the two of them that it wasn`t something that he usually talked about a lot outside of his friends that knew about it.

He then told them how a friend of his who was studding medicine and wanted to become a cardiologist had convinced him to come into his class and to be one of the student patients that they used from time to time. Lucas told them that he didn't really think much of it until well he was there the doctor who was teaching the class noticed something odd with the heart rate on his heart monitor and decided to run and EKG right there in the class on Lucas. Once he had the results he called Lucas to his office where he called his father Lawrence Wolenczak , about his son`s heart problem and said that he would be making a note of it in Lucas`s medical file so that any other doctor who sees it will be able to look out for an new problems with it, he also mentioned that he would be starting Lucas on beta blockers which should take care of it, if they didn`t then he may have to have surgery to fix his heart. Lucas silently hopped that he wouldn`t have to have that as he had had enough surgery already and he really didn`t want to have another one if he didn`t have to.

As Doctor Westphalen was thinking about that first exam on Lucas she was casually checking his heart rate so as not to disturb the conversation he was having with Ben at the time. Since med bay wasn`t busy at the time and Lucas was the only patient there she didn`t really bother enforcing visiting hours with him unless he was sleeping and then the only one who would be with him was the Captain.

As Lucas was getting better and as well as eating drinking and using the bathroom on his own she considered realising him back to his room for some more time to recover, she had wanted him to stay off duty for at least one more week, and she really wondered how much rest would he get if he was to return to his room. At the same time he had been begging her to allow the Captain to bring him his computer so he could talk with his friends online and let them know that he was okay.

Eventually she did give into having him go back to his room on the condition that he still had visitors to make sure he wasn`t working himself to hard on various projects and that he was getting regular meals as he was know from time to time to go a day or two without eating when he got bog down with a particularly daunting task or when he got a new game. When she told him that he was going to get to go back to his room he was really excited about it, but when she gave him the conditions of his return he gowned at them, she then said that she could keep him here for another week or he could have some rest somewhere more comfortable it was his choice. He decided to accept her conditions as he wanted to be back in his own room again. Since the Captain was there he volunteered to help his youngest crew member back to his quarters.

Once they got there Lucas asked the Captain to turn on his laptop for him, well he was doing this Lucas turned on a monitor he had over his bed a picked up a trackball mouse and a keyboard from a shelf by his bed. Lucas then lay on his bed staring up at the screen. He opened up one of his music files labelled college rock band. The captain saw this on the screen of his laptop and wondered what that meant, just as he was about to ask Lucas he saw him changing the picture in the background to what looked like a group of college kids with instruments and a teenage boy with a guitar in his hands poising somewhat like Angus Young on the cover of AC/DC Highway to Hell album. He then looked over to Lucas and saw him playing air guitar to just that song, he turned to him and said "I have a few questions for you young man, one what's with the folder labelled College Rock Band and Two why does that look like a picture of you about a year ago."

Lucas looked up at the man and debated about whether to answer him or not. He thought that after what he had told them about what happened to him when he was younger; he figured it would be best to be honest with him.

Lucas looked over to the captain and said "to answer both your questions at the same time, when I was in my second year of college some of my dorm mates wanted to start a rock band the only problem was they didn't have a guitar player, I mentioned to one of them that my Mom had made me take guitar lessons when I was a little younger then I was then, and am now. Anyway they asked me if I could play electric guitar. I told them that I had only played a regular one but was willing to try and play an electric one. One of them, a close friend of mine called Jason, had an old Gibson SG that his brother had given to him before he ended up buying a guitar of his own. Jason ended up teaching me to play it a little bit better than I could before. We practiced for a few weeks before our first gig at a local bar that was willing to let me in only to play and not have any drinks. It was probably one of the hardest things for me to do, as I was standing on a stage with my friends with a guitar in my hands, about to play before a group of complete strangers who had been drinking for most of the night. We started out doing the classic AC/DC song Highway to Hell, during the intro I just kind' a stood there playing my guitar like anyone else might, but as our lead singer a friend of mine by the name of Jordan stated singing the first few lines of the song I just started playing it the way I saw Angus do it in a video that they had shown me. I started running around the stage and duck-walking across it, when Jordan got to the end of the song I slid across the stage and stuck the neck of my guitar between his legs well still playing it. He looked down and said 'getting a little low there Lucas', the audience just laughed at that and gave us a huge round of applause."

The Captain looked at Lucas and smiled at him and said "how come you've never told anyone any of this before?"

"Well my dad was never too thrilled about me playing guitar so I always kept it secret from everyone. They eventually had me dressing in a school boy uniform; I also sang a few songs myself."

"What songs did you sing with them?"

"One of the songs I sang was Both Sides of the Story by Phil Collins"

"That's an interesting song for you to have chosen."

"I actually didn't chose that one of my friends handed the lyrics to me and said 'this song reminds me of you a little, especially the second verse' I looked at it and said 'man that's exactly what happened before my parents divorced, but if I'm going to sing it I want to make a little change to it.' I ended up changing it from

"_**A neighbourhood peace is shattered it's the middle of the night young faces hide in the shadows, while they watch their mother and father fight he says she's been unfaithful, she says her love for him has gone and the brother shrugs to his sister and says "looks like it's just us from now on**_"

, to

"_**A neighbourhood peace is shattered it's the middle of the night a young face hides in the shadows, while he watches his mother and father fight she says he's been unfaithful, he says her love for her has gone and the boy shrugs to himself and says "looks like it's just me from now on**_"

Captain Bridger looked at him and said "I was in a bar near Stanford one time and a group of students came on and played that song well a boy who looked almost too young to be there sang it with the lyrics you just told me about, I now know that boy was you that night."

Lucas nodded to the captain and said "So what did you think of the rest of the set, that night."

The captain looked over to Lucas and said "it was really intrusting and I liked when you came back after the intermission dressed in a schoolboy outfit to play AC/DC."

The captain started looking around Lucas's room, who of course noticed this, out of the corner of his eye well he was chatting with one of his friends on the internet. He saw the captain looking at his desk which had a pile of papers on it, most of them contained complex equations that the Captain was sure only Lucas would understand, however some of them contained sketches of dolphins. Most of the sketches seemed to be of Darwin. The Captain looked at them closely and said to Lucas "I never knew you could draw like this."

Lucas looked over to him and said "It's just something I start doing when I'm board, I took a few art classes in high school and one or two in college. As you can also see I like to do complex math equations too, for fun and to exercise my brain."

The Captains attention was then drawn to the bookshelf above the computer desk. It contained a number of computer textbooks along with ones on marine biology and physics. He also saw books on astronomy and a couple of books on linguistics. There was also a copy of the Hitch Hacker's Guide to the Galaxy complete trilogy in five parts that looked to be well read as did the copy of Lord of the Rings next to it. "Interesting book collection textbooks and then the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Lord of the Rings, have you read all of them."

Lucas looked over to the captain again and said "Lord of the Rings and Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy yes, but I've only read about half the textbooks as there mostly reference materials for my thesis."

"How's that going?"

Lucas put down his keyboard turned to the captain and said "Unfortunately I haven't had much time for it lately as I was busy the last couple of months designing the new systems for SeaQuest II, and fixing the bugs in the new systems. But I am hoping to get back to it soon. I was actually thinking of asking you to look over it for me as I'm dyslexic and sometimes have a hard time reading over it."

The captain looked at him with a look of surprise on his face did Lucas just tell him that he was dyslexic. "How come you never told me that before?"

"It's never usually a problem for me as most of the work I do around here is on the computers, so it never came up."

Lucas returned to his online conversation with Wolfman and Julianna. While the Captain sat on the chair in front of Lucas's desk he then saw three binders on the books shelf, one was ladled Prof. Martison backup, the Captain pulled this one off the shelf and flipped it open, and he saw that all it contained was about 200 CD-ROMs. "What's this" he said holding up the binder to show Lucas, who looked over to see what he was holding up.

"That's the backups for his entire knowledgebase and the program itself. I started that when I rewrote the program for this boat. I did it so I wouldn't have to do it again if you decide to crash the SeaQuest again."

The Captain looked at him and laughed saying "don't worry I won't be doing that again."

After putting that one back he picked up the next one that was much thicker and had no title on it, he opened it up and found that it also contained

CD-ROMs; he estimated that there must be at least 3 or 4 hundred of them. He figured this must be the backup for the Vocorder.

Lucas again looked over to see what the captain was looking at, "that's the backup for the Vocorder. The first 20 disks I copied the week before the SeaQuest went down."

The Captain then mentioned to him about how protective he seemed about the Vocorder. Lucas looked at him and said it has a lot to do with my dad and how he treated me with regards to writing the software for World Power.

He then looked up at Bridger and said "I never really told you why I was upset, when we all got a holiday because of World Power going online."

Bridger then said "well you did say it was because your father cared more about the project then you."

"It was a little more than that," Lucas began to say "Let me start from the beginning as what I told you then was only part of it. You see my dad was always useless with computers unless I helped him out. Well he was developing the systems for World Power he forced me to help him do it. I basically did much the same thing as I did with UEO command in developing the systems that run the new SeaQuest. However unlike the UEO, my father never gave me credit for anything I did. So basically I was mad at him not for being there but I was mad because he was using programs I invented without giving me credit."

Captain Bridger looked at him and said "ever since I met you I have always wondered why you were so secretive about the Vocorder?"

Lucas smiled at him and said "It's the one thing on this boat that I actually own the exclusive rights to. I started developing it well I was in college at Stanford University; I had always had this bizarre attraction to dolphins for some reason. Anyway one day I came across an article talking about someone trying to communicate with dolphins by someone by the name of Bridger. I tried to find out more on this person but pretty much came up empty handed. I got this idea one time daydreaming well I was doing some research for one of my Artificial Intelligence courses, what if it were possible to create a computer program that could translate the sounds of dolphins into a language that humans could understand and continue to learn at the same time. I Began working on it just for fun at first and then one day just as I was finishing my masters I showed it to one of my professors who suggested that I do it as the theses for my PHD. I had never really thought about it much, I mean what good would a doctorate of A.I., get me. I began work on it anyways just as something to do I used money that my Mom had given me to rent an apartment in San Diego and I got myself a Job at Sea World as a dolphin trainer, I told them about what I wanted to do and at first they were thinking 'this kids is crazy, so what he's a genius with an IQ that can't be measured, why should we hire him', eventually they did and at the age of 14 I had my first real job. I started my research as soon as I stated my training. I would often be found at the dolphin tank with my laptop and a very crud version of the Vocorder attached to an underwater speaker. And that's where the Vocorder began."

Just then Doctor Westphalen came in to check on him, she knocked on the door and waited for a response. Lucas heard it and told whomever it was to come in.

Dr. Westphalen opened the door and said "I hope I'm not interrupting anything but I'm just here to check on Lucas."

She walked over to his bed and asked him how he was feeling; she checked and changed the IV that he still had in his arm. She smiled at him when she saw that he was chatting with his friends on the internet, she figured if he could do that he probably wasn't feeling too bad. She then asked him if there was anything that he need. Lucas yawned before saying "yeah maybe some sleep."

"Do you want some help getting comfy?" she asked.

Lucas sleepily said "yeah that would be nice."

He then signed off his computer and put the keyboard and mouse back on the shelf were he kept them. When he reached up to turn off the monitor Dr Westphalen did it for him. Lucas just smiled at her and said "Thanks."

Next both her and the Captain helped Lucas with the covers on his bed as he got comfortable under them. The Captain ruffled Lucas's hair and said "goodnight kiddo I hope you feel better soon."

Captain Bridger and Dr. Westphalen then left his room after turning out the light. As they left the captain saw Darwin floating in the Aqua Tube beside Lucas's bed and knew that he would be fine. He picked up the Vocorder that Lucas kept in his room and hit the buttons to make it work and said to the Dolphin to keep a watch over him for them.

Darwin responded with "Darwin watch Lucas for Bridger."

Lucas rolled over and put his hand on the glass and said "thanks buddy"

Bridger took one last look around the "organised cause" that was Lucas's room and thought about how much he had found out about him both last week and today. Lucas was still a great mystery to him, but he was gradually finding out more about him.


	3. Chapter 3

A week had now passed and Lucas was feeling a little better than he had the previous week. His abs were still hearting him a little bit, but Dr. Westphalen had told him that that was perfectly normal as she had to cut open his muscles to remove his appendix. He really liked the nice little scar he had from it too, it was about 4inches long. Lucas was still on light duty for the next couple of weeks well he was healing, he took a lot of the off time going over his thesis for his doctorate in Artificial Intelligence and doing some more work on the Vocorder.

One day while Lucas and Captain Bridger were going over Lucas's thesis together when Lucas's pal started paging him, it took him about 10 minutes to find it in the mess that he called "organized ciaos". The captain commented to him "no wonder it takes you to long to answer it."

Lucas just smiled back at him, and said to him "maybe I do that on purpose so I can tell if it's really important," he also laughed as he said it too.

When he answered it was Tim from the bridge telling him that there was an incoming call from his father. Luaus seemed shocked by this but he said that he would take it and he asked Tim to keep monitoring it. The Captain then turned to him and asked if he wanted him to leave Lucas just shook his head no.

A few seconds later the face of Lawrence Wolenczak appeared on the screen in Lucas's quarters. Lucas gave him a somewhat rude greeting of "what do you want?"

Lawrence looked a little annoyed by it and said back to him "is that anyway for a son to great his father."

Lucas just glared at him and said "only if they call you when they need something. Do you even care that I had appendicitis a couple of weeks ago or did your secretary not tell you that?"

Lawrence was stunned by this and tried to say something to Lucas that sounded like I'm sorry, and I hope your felling better, but Lucas just ignored it and asked him "What have you done now crashed your laptop again? Can't one of the techs at world power fix it for you?"

Lawrence seemed to be getting a little mad at his son now as he said "No I am not having problems with my laptop. However we do seem to have a problem with a computer virus here at world power and the computer techs can't seem to fix it. When I called the UEO they told me to contact you, at first I went just to Secretary General Noise who said that it would be best if I contact you personally to ask you this rather then getting you ordered to come here. Lucas we need your help please."

Lucas considered it for a moment and looked to the Captain as he wrote something on a slip of paper that said "can I have a couple of crew members go with me?"

After getting a quick nod from the Captain he said to his father "I will come but only on two conditions first two members of the SeaQuest crew will be with me at all times, and two you pay me for my time. If you don't agree to these terms I will refuse to help you."

Lawrence glared at him and said "fine you can have your crew members with you. I'll see you then, but why should I pay my son to do something for me."

Lucas glared at him and said "why should you pay me, maybe because my time is valuable and I'm not some trained animal that comes to your call, I'm the Chief Systems Analyst on board the SeaQuest for a reason."

With that he hung up and the screen went blank. The Captain looked at Lucas and asked him if he was still going to go, Lucas turned to him and said "yeah but not for my Dad, it's more to help out the techs there as it must be a bad virus if they are calling in the big guns"

The Captain smiled and laughed as he ruffled Lucas's hair, he thought it was funny that Lucas considered himself to be the big guns in the computer world. It was true though his genius was un matched in the world he had the highest grade point average that Stanford had ever had and was still unmatched, he was also their youngest grad ever at the age of 14 and also the only grad ever to be given Latin honors as they didn't think that awarding him man of distinction was enough of an honor for his achievements.

The Captain then picked up his Pal and paged Commander Ford on the bridge and asked him to set a new course to world power. He then turned to Lucas and said "what's with you wanting two crew members to come with you?"

Lucas looked at him and said "protection."

The Captain nodded as he knew exactly why he had said that. He immediately grabbed Lucas and pulled him into a hug, something that he had been doing a lot of with him lately, as he rubbed his back he told him "it's not your fault, an don't worry anyone you want will be available to go with you¸

Lucas looked up at him and said "Crocker and Ben,"

The Capitan smiled at his selection. He then picked up his Pal and asked Commander Ford to call a meeting of the senior staff in the captains ward room. Just after he had done this another vid phone call from Secretary General Noise called for the captain, he had them put it through to Lucas's room.

During the call he confirmed that there was a problem and that a UEO computer tech had already been there and had made an attempt to fix the problem but when it was found to be worse then what they had originally thought it was and he had recommended calling Lucas in. Apparently Dr. Wolenczak wasn't too happy about that and wanted Bill Noise to order him to come in. He then turned to Lucas and asked him what his plans were. Bill laughed when he heard what Lucas's requests were, and he said that if he doesn't get paid by Lawrence he would make sure that Lucas was reimbursed for his time.

The Captain and Lucas then made their way to the front of the SeaQuest and to the captains ward room where the senior staff were assembling.

Once they arrived there Captain Bridger called the meeting to order and informed them that they were heading to World Power at the request of Doctor Wolenczak. The crew then looked at Lucas who had a fairly blank look on his face. Lucas then took the floor after Bridger asked him to explain further to everyone.

Lucas looked at everyone and said "basically what's going on is there's apparently a particular nasty virus at world power and a UEO computer tech had a lot of trouble with it and recommended calling in the big guns, me."

The senior staff laughed at that but many of them remembered back to the first SeaQuest and the virus that Lucas had managed to hack through that had been put into the computer system by the former Captain Stark in an attempt to capture SeaQuest, so they knew that even though he was trying to make a joke by referring to himself as the big guns, the teen was being serious as he was the hacker that hackers feared, and the SeaQuest was no pretty much hack proof ever since the UEO let Lucas redesign it's computer systems.

Lucas then informed the staff about his requests to his father and they also thought it was funny that he wanted to charge him for his time but at the same time they also knew that Lucas getting paid had been a note of contention at one point on the old SeaQuest. They also liked his choice of Ben and Chief Croker as his body guards per say as they knew that between those two the chances of him getting hurt were pretty slim.


End file.
